Politics this week

Rebel held

EPA

Sierra Leone's rebel leader, Foday Sankoh, who went missing a week ago, was captured in the capital, Freetown, and handed over to the British forces. His rebels have released about half the 500 or so UN peacekeepers they are holding hostage.

Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's president, called a parliamentary election for June 24th and 25th. Don McKinnon, the Commonwealth's secretary-general, said he thought fair elections were possible; the opposition said that this depended on adequate outside monitoring. The World Bank suspended new loans to Zimbabwe because of its failure to keep up with repayments.

In a fierce resurgence of their war, Ethiopian forces launched an offensive into Eritrea. Casualties were heavy. The UN Security Council belatedly agreed on a one-year arms embargo.

Demonstrations in the West Bank and Gaza, calling on Israel to release political prisoners, turned violent, with some Palestinian policemen firing at Israeli soldiers. Five Palestinians were killed and hundreds were wounded; 15 Israeli soldiers were injured.

A Moroccan Islamist leader, Abdessalam Yassine, spiritual mentor of the largest, and still banned, Islamist opposition movement, was released after more than ten years under house arrest without trial.

Family fortunes

As Chen Shui-bian prepared to take office as Taiwan's new president, he said that the Taiwanese and Chinese were “like brothers and sisters”. China, which insists that Taiwan is a rebel province, is suspicious of Mr Chen's pro-independence past.

Japan's prime minister, Yoshiro Mori, was accused of being anti-democratic when he said that the country was “divine” and had the emperor at its core. After Japan's defeat in the second world war, the emperor formally gave up a claim to divinity for himself and his descendants.

Indonesia's currency fell to its lowest point for seven months; mobs attacked the property of Jakarta's Chinese community, the usual scapegoats during economic troubles. In Ambon, the capital of the Moluccas, at least 17 people died in clashes between Muslims and Christians.

Sri Lanka's separatist Tamil Tigers refused an offer of peace talks with the government and claimed to be advancing on the town of Jaffna, in the north of the country.

Fatal fireworks

Reuters

An explosion at a fireworks depot in the Dutch town of Enschede killed at least 20 people and injured some 950 others. Hundreds remained missing. Criminal investigations were launched to examine possible arson, and to see whether regulations on the storage of fireworks had been broken. Two days later, four workers were killed in an explosion at a Spanish fireworks factory near Valencia.

Germany's Free Democrats surged into third place in an important state election in North Rhine-Westphalia, more than doubling their share of the vote. The Social Democrats came first, as before, though the Christian Democrats, in their first serious contest since Angela Merkel became their national leader last month, fared reasonably.

Germany's foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, called for full political as well as economic integration for the EU, with a federal government, a two-chamber parliament and a directly elected federal president. He said he was speaking only “personally”.

President Jacques Chirac appeared ready to back a constitutional change to shorten the term of France's presidency from seven to five years. The plan, proposed by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, a former centre-right president, is supported by the Socialist prime minister, Lionel Jospin.

Chris Patten, the European commissioner for external relations, launched an effort to clean up the EU's spending on foreign aid. He catalogued misuse, incompetence and bureaucratic hold-ups in the handling of the EU's euro10 billion ($10.5 billion) aid budget.

Britain's government said that 30,000 acres of agricultural land had been planted accidentally with genetically modified seed. The seed, unwittingly imported from Canada, had also been used in other European countries.

No guns, please

Reuters

Tens of thousands of mothers and their families marched through Washington, DC, to demand stricter regulation of handguns.

America's Supreme Court threw out a law that allowed rape victims to sue their attackers in federal court, saying it was a matter for the states.

Election observers expressed fears that the second round of Peru's presidential election might be vulnerable to fraud, despite procedural improvements. Alejandro Toledo, who is challenging President Alberto Fujimori, said he might withdraw.